Friend gave me a handycam that they don't use. It's about 6 years old and uses tapes instead of DVD's or hard drive.

I can download the memory stick still pictures. Got the USB program from Sony, didn't have one for downloading video.

Is there anyway to download the taped film? Program needed, etc?

Thanks, Don

If its digital 8 tape (not analog) you can purchase video editing software like Pinnacle Studio that will capture the Handycam output through a firewire port. I'm not sure about USB support.

You can also use Windows MovieMaker, which is comes with XP, though it isnt as good a program as pinnacle or adobe.

And you will need a fire wire to connect the camcorder to the pc. After you are connected you control from the pc which portion of the tape you download and save

We have a Sony MiniDV (tape) Handicam. Sony doesn't seem to have a problem shipping software drivers that don't work. I ran into the same problem. It's really BS IMHO that they can't send software that actually works. The solution we came up with was a throw in deal with our new TV, a DVD recorder.

If your PC doesn't have a firewire connection, you can add a card for a few bucks.

It did come with a Wire with 1 yellow Video lead, and the red and white Audio leads. I've got a DVD recorder with front connections.

So I'll give downloading to a DVD a try, then try downloading that to the computer.

Don't have firewire support on my computer and I'm not computer savy enough to tear into it and install a new card. So think I'll leave that alone for now.

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it. I'll post how things work out.

Oh yeah, it is a Sony miniDV tape handycam.

Don